Our dolphins face wipe-out

Campaigners claim that controversial bass pair fishing - pairs of trawlers towing a giant net - are to blame.

And, they warn, dolphin sightings will cease within four years, without a Europe-wide ban on the practice.

In 2004 the practice was banned for British trawlers within 12 miles of the UK - but other European vessels can continue, because they are outside the Government's jurisdiction.

Dr Lissa Goodwin, of Marine Connection, a charity working to save dolphins, whales and porpoises, said sightings of bottlenose dolphins in the region were at an all-time low, with just 16 so far this year. Sightings peaked at 335 in 1992 but by 2004 had fallen to 60.

"We could be close to wiping out a sub-population of common dolphin," Dr Goodwin said. "There is also a very real danger that we could be seeing the last of the bottlenose dolphins off the South-west shores.

"Entanglement in fishing gear is the number one cause of death in stranded dolphins, particularly common dolphins and harbour porpoises. If we want to protect the region's dolphins, we need to take urgent action."

The charity said that the number of stranded or dead dolphins soared from 58 in 1990 to 871 between 2002 and 2004.

It said only a European Union ban on pair trawlers and the use of "pinger" devices to warn creatures away from the nets would save the dolphin population from virtual wipe out.

St Ives Lib Dem MP Andrew George said: "Fishermen who are keen to maintain their income need to work with environmentalists to agree on the way forward."

South-west Devon Tory MP Gary Streeter said: "We have simply got to be more robust and urgent about changing the ways the seas are fished."